I took some time to create a few myself, but haven't done much in that department because of the time it has taken me to re-texture my models. I get a lot of models that are from vendors like Richard Jeferies that need textures,

Here's an extremely rough cut sample of some shots I'm working on for a longer animation. It's really rough at the moment, but I like some of the more iconic shots and may re-render a couple other shots to better match the look.http://youtu.be/iS-sNje4k0o

It's experimental. You know how the first Star Wars movie opens with that super long shot of the star destroyer passing over? Well this is sort of like that, but a few seconds in, Rosie comes slamming up to the camera and stays in the camera's view for the remainder. She's in one of her fighter crafts. A Needle Starship that I bought before petipet called himself petipet, but was called geekatplay. I think I own all of the petipet air craft now - that big Vimana Flying Machine was missing from my collection for some crazy reason until just recently. NBow that I have it I'm asking myself why I waited. Thing is just cool! The flyby large craft is a slightly modified HMS Fairborne by Philip Drawbridge. I don't have his Fast Attack craft, and don't recall knowing that his Sub-Mariner was a Carrara model. Gonna have to get those - just 'cause I like Drawbridgep models. The Derstroyer HMS August was my first drawbridgep purchase. Then came the super-killer Deep Space Heavy Cruiser... Oh... man I love that one! The others in his collection are Bryce models. If I ever do get Bryce up and running and find that I enjoy using it, I'll buy those too.

I was going to do this shot (the one I'm rendering now) with Rosie in her Thunderbike by Kibaretto. That's one heck of an attack craft. Very maneuverable with unbeatable acceleration capabilities that most humans can't stomach. The needle was already set up and ready to go - so since my current Carrara play time is limited, I chose this sporty little rig! It is... the Needle reminds me of the really cool racetrack-only sports cars of the 50's and 60's. Vettes and Jaguar, Mercedes... AC Cobra... that cool tiny cockpit with the long, sporting front jam packed with absolute horsepower! General Grievous from Star Wars The Clone Wars has a ship a lot like the Needle. Well, here it is, if you'd like to see the product. I'll name a few more favorites in my petipet collection as well:Aircraft Needle (I guess it isn't really even a starship - but that's what I use it for)Starship Harpoon - This is the one Rosie took to TheAntFarm's Techno Station in my earlier sample video. I love this ship!
I guess I don't have The Zeppelin Star yet. When I'm done typing, I shall rectify that. One cool thing about being a PC member. If I got $2, I can buy cool petipet ships!The amazing Starship Sky-HammerSteam Dragon I love this, too. And I have a special purpose for this baby.Aircraft Condor reminds me of the Flight Vehicle Construction Set - but that I don't have to put together. Cool ship nonetheless.Starship Stingray was also going to be used in this shot - but I've decided that I want to make my own textures for it first. Love the shape and versatility of this cool ship.Air Car Jumper is another that has escaped my grasp so far. I'll likely add this one soon - as I begin busying my Sci Fi city scene again. I have a lot - but when I look around today - I realize that there's no such thing as too much variety in personal transportation vehicles in a city.
I was totally tickled pink when he released the Nomad Module!!! Any Star Wars fan has to have one of these!!!
I bought the Drone Wasp just recently - also for filling Sci Fi Cities - but finding out that this little baby can fulfill many a role! Glad to have it aboard!
I've already mentioned the Vimana Flying Machine which might just make for the perfect Bad Guy car! I can just see it... that retro escape with the evil, maniacal laughter: "...and I will R U L E the World!"
And then, just the other day, I've finally bought the Starship Piranha, which rounds out my current petipet Starship collection. Of course I've also got the really cool city and many of his excellent cars and most everything that he sells, for that matter. Great models at a great price is hard for me to pass up - trying to fill a whole movie full of assets in my short, human lifespan.

Sorry for going on so... Just felt it hit the right topic - got me in the mood to share what I've got going on up my sleeve as for the "play" side of Carrara. I could really go off on Sci Fi sets that I've been buying too... but I've typed enough for now. Since I cannot type - it takes me forever to say all of this. So.... we'll talk to you later.

Very decent! Love it!
If my animation turns out, I'll post it up. I'm utilizing the Gamma Correction = 2.2 Technique brought to us by Phil Wilkes. I actually just wanted to test it out, and was amazed at the difference it gave my scene. But what was really strange - and I just cannot understand it - but it turned on the render speed! Man! I doubt it's like this across the board - but for this scene, I turned on Ambient Occlusion Only, under Indirect Lighting, instead of going Full Indirect, and left the Sky Light unchecked. Set the Gamma Correction to 2.2 and ran a test. I couldn't believe how much faster it rendered than when the setting were the same, but without any indirect lighting calculations, and no Gamma correction. Otherwise the same. Odd... wouldn't you say? But it made my HMS Fairborne flyby really look nice! It's like adding a bunch of life to the steel construction. Can't wait to see how the whole nine second animation renders out.

Here's an extremely rough cut sample of some shots I'm working on for a longer animation. It's really rough at the moment, but I like some of the more iconic shots and may re-render a couple other shots to better match the look.http://youtu.be/iS-sNje4k0o

So, is that the actual soundtrack theme from that movie? Just asking. I like it.
Speaking of liking it...
Dude, I love what you've got going on, here! Sweet!!! Keep going! I want to see MORE!

Here's an extremely rough cut sample of some shots I'm working on for a longer animation. It's really rough at the moment, but I like some of the more iconic shots and may re-render a couple other shots to better match the look.http://youtu.be/iS-sNje4k0o

Rough cut? Man, that would be like the cream of the crop for me if it was my render.

If you go over to Renderosity, you can check out my gallery there and get a big dose of space scenes.

I started compiling the list of tricks I've cooked up for space scenes and actually started writing it all down. When it got to be 10 pages long, I decided that maybe I should break it up a bit. The section on building star fields was a few pages in itself. That didn't start to cover planets, nebula, individual stars and sun effects.

I FINALLY figured a way to have a star field in a scene with a bi-gradient in the backdrop for GI lighting and black space (that took forever to cheat that one out). Now I can do full animations in one single render with a full blown star field and GI. No more rendering the backdrop separate.

My biggest issue is if I were to crunch together such a tutorial (written tutorial), the question is how to present it? I would prefer c3dexpo again. What other options are practical?

Here's an extremely rough cut sample of some shots I'm working on for a longer animation. It's really rough at the moment, but I like some of the more iconic shots and may re-render a couple other shots to better match the look.

Here's an extremely rough cut sample of some shots I'm working on for a longer animation. It's really rough at the moment, but I like some of the more iconic shots and may re-render a couple other shots to better match the look.

Wow, that truly is a great image, bigh!here's my failed animation clip - but it taught me what I needed to know. I can't get over the speed of the render, though. Under three seconds per frame on average! :ahhh:

It's what I used in my video. I loaded it and duplicated it, then promoted each duplicate to a master. Then I shuffled each one on the first frame to look a bit different.

For added heat, I put a bulb inside each fire (the fire is set to not cast shadows or receive shadows) and then adjusted the color of the light to match the flames. I also enabled the light sphere and enabled the realistic option. You'll need to adjust the size and intensity of the sphere effect based on the scale of the flame. I also added a lens flare and dialed back the size and intensity a bit.

Here's an extremely rough cut sample of some shots I'm working on for a longer animation. It's really rough at the moment, but I like some of the more iconic shots and may re-render a couple other shots to better match the look.http://youtu.be/iS-sNje4k0o

It does not look like a rough cut at all.

This is a great animation and the music adds a fantastic element to the “story”.